Roughly 200 dealers and contractors attended the Bostik/National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) Hardwood Flooring Intermediate Installation Training in Mexico.
“There clearly is a construction boom going on in Mexico, Colombia, Peru and other Latin American countries,” said Daniel Sanchez, national sales manager, Consumer and Construction Business Unit, Bostik Mexicana. “Most hardwood flooring dealers and contractors simply haven’t been educated on state-of-the-art installation techniques. Our modus operandi was to begin changing that on an ongoing basis, beginning with this event.”
More than 10,000 square feet of space was used for classroom presentations, hands-on installation demonstration and lunchrooms. At the event, 2,250 square feet of flooring were actually installed, more than 1.5 tons of self leveling underlayment were used and this took place at 16 different installation stations.
“We thought there would be around 100 attendees and we were wrong,” added Sanchez. “A month before the event, we had well over 200 signed up to be there. Generally at three-day seminars such as these, companies invite a top industry installation specialist to be their main attraction. At first glance, the planned turnout was so large we made the strategic decision to bring in two top presenters.”
To address this need, Bostik brought in Jon Namba and Lenny Hall, both well-known North America hardwood flooring professionals, to function as co-presenters. Namba, who is FCI's editorial director, is owner of Namba Services in Salt Lake City, an NWFACP-Certified Installer, Sand and Finisher and inspector who serves on NWFA’s Membership Services Committee and has earned NWFA Craftsman, Master Craftsman, Vanguard and Ambassador degrees. Namba is an NWFA technical training instructor for installation, sand and finish and inspection. Hall is the owner of Endurance Floor Co. in West Park, Fla., a firm focusing on high-end wood flooring projects. Lenny has won multiple “Wood Floor of the Year” awards and has taught at many NWFA technical schools. He is an NWFA regional instructor.
“Jon and Lenny did a fantastic job,” said Sanchez. “They were totally professional and I don’t believe more than one or two of our guests left before the very end of this extensive, three-day event. Together with our presenters, we focused in part on educating attendees relative to solution strategies using our UltraSet Single Step2, Bostik’s highest-performance wood flooring adhesive. Additionally, we demonstrated both in classroom and live sessions how best to utilize the newer Bostik self-leveling underlayments, which were introduced to the world marketplace at the beginning of this year.”
Scott Banda, Bostik’s director of marketing and business development added, “Educating the marketplace on today’s optimal installation procedures has become a major commitment of ours. Of course, we want to sell product and continue being the world leader in providing highest-performance wood flooring installation materials. But even more, we believe in giving back to both customers and community. That’s why unlike typical contractor/dealer events, where key industry people are invited and then asked to pay a hefty fee to attend lectures and participate in hands-on sessions, we paid for the entire three-day event."
For more information, visit bostik.com and nwfa.org.
